


(we could all be) the best kind of friends

by cursive



Series: the stars are aligned but they don't align for us [3]
Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: (briefly) - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Magic, Animal Transformation, Fluff, M/M, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Slow Burn, some (?) humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 09:00:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14787479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cursive/pseuds/cursive
Summary: every witch is a not-so-secret gossip auntie.alternatively: how hwang minhyun went from having two boyfriends to none and then two again.





	(we could all be) the best kind of friends

**Author's Note:**

> so let's make a few things clear before you delve further into this/insult me for "mistagging":
> 
> 1\. this is not a short ride and it usually takes a while for everyone to be on the same page/agree to enter a poly relationship; wait for it and don't be angry there are "more interactions between one ship than the other"/"the writer doesn't care about [character] and he'll be left out!!". please be patient. or just don't read if one of these ships particularly bothers you.
> 
> 2\. this shouldn't have to be said but i've seen things that ruined my trust: i love all three of them. no one will be "purposefully portrayed under a negative light" or "left out". remember, realistic writing requires realistic characters and everyone screws up at times. let me develop them at my own pace, please and thanks.
> 
> 3\. this is a sequel/spin-off of [and i'm full of wonder (i'm falling under your spell)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12838167). you may choose to let it end at that fic and stick to the original nielnyeon or you may read this and stay for the ot3. if you read that fic you're not obliged to read this one, and if you haven't read it... i recommend that you do, for a bit of context, but i'm willing to summarize its events for you if the word count's too intimidating.
> 
> (or maybe you can just read it for the first time after i edit it!!!!!!!!!!! it's full of mistakes i haven't gotten around to fix yet... maybe the day after i post this)
> 
> that being said, enjoy the read! i know i have a lot more to write and unfinished wips looking at me like i'm a monster, but. i need to get myself out of this slump first, so i'll just. write what inspires me more before moving on to my beloved projects sdfjgdsfd

“Youngmin”, Minhyun speaks calmly to his phone. “Daniel is a dog again.”

“Wait, what?”, the other man immediately interjects just as Daniel sadly nuzzles his head onto Minhyun’s lap for comfort. “That’s not supposed to happen.”

Minhyun sighs, rubbing at his temple with his free hand. “I know. It was so sudden, too. He’s been stable for months, now.”

Youngmin hums back at him, seemingly at a loss. It takes him a few moments to carefully ask, “Did something happen or did he just… Turn?”

“Nothing too major, I think?”, Minhyun replies, shrugging. “I met him up for a date and when—”

“Wait, wait, wait—“, Youngmin interrupts him, so loudly that Minhyun has to pull away from his phone. Now, Minhyun had always been a fan of Youngmin’s deep but friendly voice, loud at (mostly) the right times and low and soothing when necessary.

Youngmin was being loud at the _wrong_ time.

“A date?”, his voice booms through the phone speaker, startling even Daniel, who had – unsurprisingly – started to doze off on Minhyun’s lap while they rested on the park bench, effectively littering the elder’s black pants with pristine white dog hair. “You were out on a _date_ with Daniel?”

Minhyun rolls his eyes, staring at it his phone mild disgust before putting it close to his ear again. “Maybe if you let me _finish_ I can—”

“Does Seongwoo know?”, Youngmin promptly interrupts him again, although not as loudly as before.

“Does he need to—“, Minhyun  starts, pursing his lips before changing his mind. “Listen, just let me tell you how it happened, then grill me with questions, okay?”

Youngmin could only reply with a loud, suspicious hum. Minhyun sighs again, aware that he would be in for some grilling when he was done.

**xxx**

“Okay, hyung, but”, Woojin tries to reason, taking the pen he was chewing on out of his mouth and turning to look at Minhyun, “what took you so long to finally _go_ on this date with Daniel? Didn’t he ask you out in, like, September?”

Minhyun ignores him in favor of staring harder at himself through the mirror, trying to find a problem with the fourth or fifth shirt he was trying on; both Jihoon and Woojin had lost count, already, too busy sprawled over their tutor’s bed, surrounded by books of the non-magical type in their continuous effort to study for their entrance exams. “Maybe I should wear something other than black. We’re going for a walk in the park, not to the movie theater or—”

“Just go for the blue one”, Jihoon finally snaps, burning a hole on Minhyun’s back; Minhyun catches his glare from the mirror and shudders involuntarily, making Jihoon immediately soften, slightly taken aback by his newfound power. “It just… goes well with your hair color”, he finishes lamely.

Minhyun hums, still visibly surprised. “I’m not sure I should be taking fashion advice from you, of all people—”. Jihoon glares at him again and Minhyun stares back at him unimpressed; the same trick wouldn’t work on him twice, it seemed. “—But I’ll accept it.”

“Now answer our question”, Jihoon presses on as Minhyun takes off the black shirt, pushing a few books back on his bed to make space to carefully fold it. “We haven’t had tutoring sessions in a month because of the SATs, you can’t have been too busy.”

“But I was”, Minhyun retorts, shoving an arm into the baby blue shirt Jihoon had suggested. “And that’s what you’re gonna tell him if he asks.”

Jihoon squints at his tutor in suspicion. “What have you been doing, hyung?”

Woojin echoes his best friend. “Yeah, it’s not like you’ve even left Busan while we were studying.”

“Well”, Minhyun starts, draping the shirt over his frame and shakily buttoning it up. “I did go a couple times to Jeju to pay a visit to—to the guys, but—”

“And you didn’t bring us along?”, Jihoon whines, “when are you even gonna introduce me to everyone Woojin already knows? I’ve been waiting for _two months_ , hyung—“

“When you’re done with your exams”, their tutor replies sternly. “Aren’t we moving to Seoul soon, anyway? You two better have the results to do that.”

Jihoon pouts but relents. “Fair enough. I still have to ace this and get a better grade than Woojin to prove a point, anyway.”

Minhyun purses his lips, sending his dongsaeng a dirty look; Woojin flicks Jihoon’s forehead to express his indignance. “This unrelenting competitivity is really gonna put a dampener in your blooming romantic relationship.” The boys sputter as Minhyun chuckles. “It’s kinda nostalgic, to be honest. Reminds me of someone.”

Jihoon, always quick to recover from the lowest of blows, mouths a _who_ at Woojin when Minhyun stares down to struggle with one of the top buttons on his shirt; all he earns is a noncommittal shrug.

“Anyway”, Minhyun continues innocently, turning to look at his two pupils, smiling benevolently. “I’ll be going now.”

“You’re still not answering our question”, Woojin protests, and Jihoon echoes him in equal indignance. “And,” he looks down at his phone (that Minhyun will surely confiscate before he leaves so the boys will only focus on their studies), then offers it to Minhyun, screen turned towards him, “Minki hyung says you’ve spent, like, two days in Jeju since last September.”

Minhyun barely looks at the Kakaotalk message displayed on the screen before shrugging, cursing his friends for being so fond of his pupils and – the _nerve_ – keeping in touch with them. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

“Come to think of it”, Jihoon leans his chin on his hand, as if in deep thought, “It did take me tricking you into coming to the studio so Daniel could talk to you for this date to happen.”

Woojin stares at his best friend as if he had just stabbed him in the back. “You never told me you did that!”

Jihoon shrugs. “You’d ruin everything with your big mouth”, he reasons. “That plan required a lot of pure evil, not”, he gestures vaguely at Woojin, “your brand of lawful good.”

“I’m gonna pretend that was a compliment”, Woojin replies after staring open-mouthed at Jihoon for a good three-second interval. He then sends Minhyun a look. “What do you have to say about this, hyung?”

Minhyun presses his lips together. “Uh, Daniel did ask me out when I went to the dance studio, yeah.”

“It was more that he started tearing up and asked Minhyun hyung if he had done something wrong then invited him to a _Sunday stroll in the park_ that got hyung so flustered he said _it’s a date, then_ than, you know, asking each other out”, Jihoon kindly corrected his hyung. “Kind of messy, if you ask me.”

Woojin pouts. “Why do I always miss out on all the good drama?”

“Says who?”, Jihoon retorts. “I missed out on the whole Seoul-Jeju drama, you have no right to complain.”

Minhyun, who was watching their bickering as he thought of a good way to escape their scrutiny, decides that would be the perfect moment to attempt at escaping his own room; being the long-legged _disaster gay_ Jihoon had often dubbed him for, all he manages is to trip on Woozi’s pillow and loudly knock over a few artifacts on the shelves nearby, drawing both his pupils’ attention back to him.

“Hyung,” both boys glare at Minhyun; this time, their attempt at intimidation by numbers works. “Were you avoiding Daniel hyung?”

Their silent staring contest lasts too little; Minhyun, frozen in place, soon relents, pulling at his collar and swallowing hard as he tries to look unaffected. “Maybe.”

“And would you kindly explain us why?”, Jihoon asks, raising an eyebrow at his tutor’s nervous demeanor. “Daniel hyung is our friend, too. We have the right to be mad at you on his behalf if you’ve hurt him in any way.”

“I haven’t!”, Minhyun protests, ears going red under his students’ pressure. “I’d never do that to him. He’s such a sweet guy.”

“But?”, both Woojin and Jihoon ask, staring intently at the elder.

“But… I…” Minhyun rubs nervously at his arms, looking anywhere but at the boys, the flush of his ears now spreading to his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. “I’ve… never done this before. I mean. Dating.”

There’s silence.

And then there’s Jihoon unbelieving laughter and Woojin asking, louder than necessary, “You? Never dated? You?”

Minhyun opens his mouth to defend himself, but Jihoon doesn’t let him speak.

“I mean, it’s understandable”, the blonde argues, nudging Woojin’s side, “come to think of it, hyung’s attractive but he kinda acts like a hermit, doesn’t he? Never goes out at night, rarely goes outside—”

“Hey, I _like_ the outside!”, Minhyun protests.

“Yeah, sure”, Jihoon quickly dismisses him, “your own front yard hardly counts, though.”

“He’s just a bit of an introvert”, Woojin tries to defend their tutor; Jihoon tuts in disapproval.

“Yeah, I’m a bit of an introvert”, Minhyun echoes weakly.

Jihoon shakes his head. “ _Woojin_ is an introvert. You’re just”, he gestures vaguely with the hand that isn’t holding on to a pencil, then lets it land on Woojin’s shoulder. “A sad, sad hermit.”

“Are you sure you’ve never dated anyone?”, Woojin asks again, ignoring Jihoon and the glare Minhyun is shooting at the two of them. “I mean, you kind of look like the inexperienced type, but—”

“You don’t have to be nice, Woojinie”, Jihoon admonishes his best friend. “He’s a total virgin.”

 “Jihoon”, Minhyun starts, trying to keep his voice even despite feeling deeply offended, “are you trying to rile me up?”

Jihoon laughs, smiling innocently. “Not at all, hyung. You’re the one who said you’ve never dated before, so I just figured you’d probably never felt the touch of a man—”

“ _Enough_ ”, their tutor snaps. “There’s nothing _bad_ about never having dated anyone”, he mutters, as if trying to reassure himself, before he continues his tirade. “I’ll have you know I actually _have_ some experience, okay? In fact, I have been told that I give quite good h—”

“Ugh, TMI”, Woojin mutters just as Jihoon exclaims “that’s _fascinating_ , hyung, please tell us more”, and it’s enough to make Minhyun realize what he was about to tell his students and shut himself up, mortified.

Minhyun clears his throat, still beet red. “I just… never had a _boyfriend_ , okay? Or… someone who called me one, I don’t know.”

“But you _had_ someone, didn’t you, hyung?”, Jihoon asks, sounding sincerely concerned, this time.

“I…” Minhyun trails off, then runs a hand through his hair (and proceeds to ruin the perfect comma Jihoon had managed to style his fringe into). “I kind of did. But it’s none of you kids’ businesses.”

Jihoon pouts. “Aw. Next time, then.”

“Next time what?”, Minhyun asks him warily, pulling up his phone to check the time.

“Nothing”, his pupil replies in mock innocence, nudging Woojin to stage whisper to him, “we’re so ripping this information out of him.”

Minhyun frowns at them. “I can hear you, you know.”

“I know”, Jihoon tells him with a smile. “Aren’t you running late, though? I didn’t think you’d want to give Daniel hyung a bad impression right on your first date. You know, your first date ever. The first date of your life. The very first date someone ever invited you t—”

“Alright, I get it.” Minhyun sighs, shoulders slumping, then heads to the door. “When I’m back, we’re gonna have a talk about being rude about your tutor’s love life.”

“We sincerely hope you get laid, then”, Jihoon replies, throwing Minhyun a wink before getting hit by an inconspicuous fox plushie Minhyun hurls at him with a flick of his wrist before slamming the door shut. “He’s not getting laid with that attitude, though”, he mutters to Woojin.

“Weren’t you a little too mean to him, though?”, the younger asks him after making sure Minhyun was too far to overhear their conversation.

Jihoon shrugs, idly scribbling a sigil into his math notes. “Maybe I was, but”, he looks intently at his best friend, “don’t you have a bad feeling about all this, too?”

They knock their shoulders together, leaning against each other. Woojin watches Jihoon’s hands as he works on the sigil in silence for a few minutes, brows furrowed in thought.

“Maybe”, he replies cautiously. “About what, exactly?”

“I don’t know”, Jihoon draws an almost full circle, but stops short from closing it. “Minhyun hyung’s as good at ignoring his own problems as he is at self-sabotage.” He takes a look at the sigil, a series of juxtaposed scribbles he starts but doesn’t quite allow himself to finish. “There must be a reason he’s so… _weird_ about Daniel hyung when he clearly feels something for him.”

Woojin absent-mindedly leans his head against Jihoon’s shoulder, oblivious to how the other boy tenses up in the slightest at his gesture, too lost in thought to care. He thinks about their days in Seoul, about storming into the apartment that used to be Minhyun’s home, about the man that let them in, baffled and hurt by his tutor’s sudden appearance, and the fight that took place instead of any greeting.

He vaguely remembers Daniel wondering if they had a thing, and of briefly wondering the same later that day, but he had never made much of it; he had thought the same of Jonghyun, after all.

“Unfinished business, I guess”, he says unprompted as he takes a second look at Jihoon’s sigil. When the elder hums in confusion, not really moving from his place not to rustle Woojin, he adds, “your sigil. It’s incomplete. What’s it for?”

“Oh”, Jihoon mutters in response, much softer than he had acted when talking to Minhyun. “I don’t know. But it feels right, this way. Maybe it’ll give us strength to finish homework before it’s due.”

Woojin chuckles. “Magic won’t help make that happen, we’re two weeks late already.”

**xxx**

“So I was walking by his side, and we were talking about, I don’t know, was it Avengers?”, Minhyun tells Youngmin over the phone, looking down at Daniel for confirmation; the dog nods then slumps against his lap again. “Yeah, it was Avengers—”

“Muggle movies, Minhyun?”, Youngmin teases him amusedly.

Minhyun scoffs, displeased at the interruption. “Oh, come on, you _like_ Doctor Strange and you know the movie’s pure bullshit—, but yeah—then he invited me to go sightseeing at the tower and I said yes and took his hand—”, Youngmin makes a noise, but Minhyun quickly shuts him down. “Listen, this part’s important, I took his hand, right—but a few steps into our walk hand in hand, it wasn’t a hand anymore. It was a very fluffy paw.”

Daniel yaps at him, pleased at being called _fluffy_. From the other side of the line, Youngmin can only chuckle. “So he Turned when you took his hand?”

“Yeah, he—”, Minhyun realizes what Youngmin means , then looks down at Daniel in slight confusion. “He was a bit nervous.”

“That’s it, then”, Youngmin says cheerily yet matter-of-factly. “You see, the antidote works just fine, but it doesn’t fully dissipate the curse.”

“You mean he’s still cursed?”, Minhyun asks in all seriousness, scratching behind Daniel’s ears when he whines, equally worried.

“No, I mean it didn’t fully wear off”, Youngmin explains. “It would take us much longer to get fully rid of a long-term curse, you know that.”

Minhyun groans. “I know, but is it—does it mean he’s cursed again?”

“I don’t think that’s the case, but it could happen if a more experienced wizard had cast it. This is just… a residual side effect?”

Daniel whines louder, nosing at Minhyun’s legs and trying to listen in to his conversation with Youngmin.

“So you mean it’ll be gone by sunset?”, Minhyun asks, looking down at Daniel and trying to calm him down by petting his head again.

“Yeah, like the original curse. It probably won’t happen again tomorrow, but for now you should be careful. It tends to happen when you feel too many, uh… _emotions_?”

Youngmin tries not to snicker at his own comment; Minhyun blanks at the phone. “I just held his hand, Youngmin.”

“I can only imagine what would have happened if you’d tried to, I don’t know, kiss him”, his friend teases him, then promptly rethinks what he had just said. “Wait, you didn’t kiss him, right? That would be, like—cheating.”

“What?”, Minhyun asks, utterly confused.

“Cheating. You wouldn’t do that to Seongwoo, right?”, Youngmin asks, his deep voice coming from a soft and friendly tone to a hard, warning one.

“I—? Youngmin? We never—Seongwoo and I—"

Daniel’s head perks up at the mention of Seongwoo; Minhyun averts his gaze, too flustered and confused to properly respond.

“Uh”, Youngmin mutters awkwardly, trying to understand Minhyun’s broken mumbling. “I mean, I know you kind of disappeared for two years without ever talking to him, but I figured you’d sorted things out after you spent the night at his—your place?”

“Gossip sure does run fest in Seoul, huh”, Minhyun deadpans. “I thought you were better than that, Busan boy.”

“Hey, I’ve been living here for much longer than you have”, his friend tried to defend himself. “Anyway, rumor had it that you guys were boyfriends again, so I wasn’t about to meddle.”

Once again, Minhyun pulls away from his phone, staring incredulously at Youngmin’s cheery picture on the screen. He slowly pulls it closer again, taking a deep breath and avoiding looking at Daniel at all costs.

“Youngmin-ah”, he starts, not exactly sweetly, but calmly enough to make Youngmin shut up and listen to him. “Youngmin-ah, Seongwoo and I never dated.”

A loud crashing noise comes from the other side of the line.

“You never _what now_?”, a different, slightly higher-pitched voice chimes in, as loudly as Youngmin had spoken before. “Did Seongwoo hyung ever get that memo?”

Minhyun rolls his eyes, suppressing a sigh because he knows that now not only Youngmin but also Donghyun will give him hell if he talks back when they’re grilling him. “Hello to you too, Donghyun.”

“Don’t _hello_ me, hyung”, the younger replies in mock offense, sounding too concerned over the subject for formalities. “Repeat what you just said and tell me you believe in a single word of it.”

“Is it that hard to believe?”, Minhyun asks, feeling his leg start to shake. He never really liked to talk about Seongwoo with other people. “Seongwoo and I never dated.”

“Bullshit”, comes Donghyun’s immediate response. “You guys were totally a thing! I was a baby and I already knew that!”

“We were—listen, Donghyun”, Minhyun snaps; Daniel’s whines are just white noise for his brain, now, the adrenaline of having to talk about something he _definitely_ did not want to talk in front of his _date_ , of all people, taking over his mind and body. “We were never official. We were never a _thing_. He never—he never _asked_ ”, and Minhyun hates how bitter he sounds when he says it out loud, how things he had managed to suppress before through overworking himself and focusing only on the boys are surfacing full-force and how there is nothing he can do about it. “And I never asked him, either. I never wanted to pressure him into entering a relationship he—”

“Bullshit”, Donghyun repeats, unfazed. “You chickened out. I guess he chickened out, too, but he still. Minhyun hyung.”

“What is it, Donghyun”, Minhyun deadpans back. He has a feeling he knows what Donghyun is about to tell him. “Don’t sugarcoat it.”

“Wasn’t gonna do that, I know you hate when we do it”, the younger replies simply. “Hyung, Seongwoo hyung… definitely thought you guys were dating.”

Minhyun blanches at his phone, shock painted all over his face. What anchors him back – what calls upon him to come back from whichever Land Of Avoidance his subconscious was about to take him to – is Daniel’s front paw, firmly planted on his thigh, putting a definitive stop to the shaking.

“This can’t be true”, he mutters, at last, when Donghyun’s whispered _hyung?_ calls finally seem too much. “You’re fucking with me, Donghyun, aren’t you?”

“Wish I was, now”, the younger mumbles sheepishly, regret weighing heavily in his voice as he realizes Minhyun truly had no idea. “I—”

“Let me take over from here, right, Donghyun-ah?”, a deeper voice interjects distantly from the other side of the line; after some shuffling noises, Youngmin speaks clearly into the receiver, “Minhyunie, you really had no idea?”

All Minhyun can do is laugh in disbelief; it’s not like he _wants_ to laugh, not with Daniel listening in to that very confusing conversation, not to the painful epiphany that the past six years of his life had been a lie he had told himself – being roommates with Seongwoo was one thing, he thought, being best friends with him was what came naturally from spending so much time together, and what they had _become_ after a shared kiss under the protection of a bus stop in the middle of nowhere in rural Japan the first time they’d done a job alone was _another thing entirely_.

Everything that happened after that was much harder to think about now.

“Youngmin”, Minhyun manages to croak out after that brief moment of watching his entire life flash before his eyes, “Youngmin, it’s been two years. He can’t possibly think—”

“Oh, he probably doesn’t”, his friend says in what he thinks might be a soothing tone for Minhyun. “I wouldn’t know, I haven’t asked. Doesn’t change that he did at some point, though”

Daniel’s paw presses into his thigh, urging Minhyun back again when he realizes it’s still hard to swallow that information. “Yeah”, he exhales. “I should probably talk to him.”

“You should probably talk to him”, Youngmin echoes.

Daniel still has his paw on Minhyun’s thigh after the call ends, several excruciating minutes and awkward pauses later. They share a look once Minhyun puts away his phone, but Minhyun is quick to avert his gaze to the darkening November sky.

“The sun’s setting soon”, he speaks up after what feels like hours for his befuddled mind. “Youngmin says you’ll turn back at night, so let’s go somewhere private before we get arrested for indecent exposure.”

Daniel barks, seemingly amused at Minhyun’s light joke; his cheery demeanor soon gets dampened by Minhyun’s lack of reaction to his own comment. Minhyun figures he probably has a few questions to ask once he’s back at his human form, so he adds, “Let’s go to your apartment later. I’ve… found out about a few things that shouldn’t be discussed over the phone.” He sighs, exhaustion evident in his face. “Oh, well.”

His dog boyfriend (maybe his dog _almost_ boyfriend, at this point, he thinks) whines in empathy, nuzzling Minhyun’s leg one last time before he gets up and they start walking towards the nearest toilet stall.

**xxx**

“That’s a lot to take in”, Daniel admits once Minhyun is done telling him about the phone call. “I kind figured you and Seongwoo hyung were exes or something, but I didn’t want to pry back then.”

“You should have”, Minhyun says, resting his head on both his hands. “Would have spared two extra months in the dark.”

Daniel’s living room was relatively tidy for someone so messy, despite the jelly candy wrappers strewn about and the cats walking all over the place; for a moment, Minhyun toys with the idea that Daniel might have tidied up in hopes Minhyun would actually come to his place after their date and they would, as the kids say nowadays, _Netflix and chill_.

( _the kids don’t say it like this nowadays_ , Jihoon would argue, probably)

There’s little space for two people their size on Daniel’s loveseat, but they make do; Minhyun thinks he does need the physical comfort of someone hugging the epiphany out of him, and Daniel had been comfortable enough around him to transform back into his butt naked human form on his lap more than once. They had been through worse; what harm would some cuddling do?

( _a lot_ , Minhyun thinks; in retrospect, he should have realized that there were plenty of things he had done with Seongwoo besides the obvious physical ones that he hadn’t done with any other friends. If those were part of the actual concept of _going on dates_ , then Minhyun figured he actually had much more experience than he credited himself for; oh, Jihoon would make him suffer so much when he found out)

Nevertheless, Daniel’s big hand rubbing warm circles on his back still provided much more comfort than hugging a pillow ever would; he could enjoy that feeling with an empty head for a while.

“What are you gonna do now, hyung?”, Daniel asks, effectively snapping Minhyun out of his reverie and driving him away from the idea that whatever was happening right there was anything remotely similar to the concept of _Netflix and chill_.

Minhyun considers answering him with the obvious, acceptable answer: he would talk things out with Seongwoo and figure out what exactly he still felt for him, _if_ he still felt anything.

“I don’t know”, he mutters instead, digging his palms into his closed eyes until Daniel’s gentle touch pries his hands away from his face. “I should talk to him, but I’m not—I’m not sure I’m emotionally well-equipped to talk to him about it. We’ll have,” he opens his eyes, pausing when he sees Daniel’s face right in front of his, albeit at a safe distance, watching him expectantly. “We’ll have a lot to talk about.”

Daniel nods understandingly, but Minhyun can tell he’s not entirely happy about it. “I guess that puts us on hold until you figure things out, then.”

Ah. Yes. On top of all that, Minhyun would have to (temporarily? permanently?) dump Daniel, which he thinks is a little dumb, given his and Seongwoo’s supposed two-year hiatus, but it still feels unethical to him to _date_ Daniel while the situation with Seongwoo – while the life he left behind in Seoul – is left unresolved.

“I mean”, Daniel continues once Minhyun stays silent long enough for the atmosphere to grow awkward, “it’s not like we really _went out_ because, well, the curse kinda ruined our date and it probably felt more like dogsitting than dating for you, hyung, but—“. He pauses, takes a deep breath, squirming when he realizes Minhyun is really staring at him and _not_ spacing out. “I like you, hyung.”

That should come as no news for Minhyun; he _had_ turned Daniel down before, although not out of a lack of interest but rather out of some stupid sense of duty that he had to be no more than Woojin’s and Jihoon’s tutor.

Which, in retrospect, is a little telling of how little he had seen his relationship with Seongwoo as _dating_.

(definitely not out of _not loving_ Seongwoo, but rather— _yes_ , he yells at himself internally _, because of my stupid sense of duty, probably_ – but rather, it’s better to ignore the _other_ yelling nagging voice in his head telling him that’s not entirely the case)

“I’ve had this stupid crush on you ever since that day you attended the boys’ dance crew presentation”, Daniel continues, unaware of Minhyun’s own conflicting thoughts on the matter. Minhyun wants to tell him _I know_ , but did he, really? Was he ever really capable enough to read the people around him and how they really felt about him?

 _Jonghyun’s case should be telling enough_ , yet another voice, sounding annoyingly like Minki, pops up in his mind. He attempts to curse it away.

Daniel persists in his attempt of breaking into Minhyun’s mind and somehow throwing _other people’s actual feelings_ into it. “Jihoonie would always tell me I didn’t stand a chance, that you’d never be interested”, he laughs at himself – he laughs at anything, Minhyun _knows_ –, absent-mindedly talking Minhyun’s hand into his own large ones and prying it open – was Minhyun digging his nails into his palms? Was he that far gone? “I still gave it a try anyway, and I’m actually kinda grateful I got cursed? It was way easier to approach you like that—and hey, it got me a date!”

He pauses, squints, and Minhyun feels his stomach drop for a second, afraid that he might finally be called out for his own avoidance.

Daniel laughs again. “Two months after I actually asked you out, but it’s still a win.”

Minhyun feels his mouth open on its own.

“You’re really too good for this world”, he finds himself telling Daniel before his brain can stop his mouth. _It’s a wonder you like me, of all people_ , he manages to hold in after slapping the palm Daniel had pried open almost painfully over his lips.

Well, it doesn’t take the smile off of Daniel’s face, so Minhyun thinks the cheesiness might have been worth it.

“You give yourself too little credit, hyung”, the younger says, gently taking Minhyun’s hand back into his own. “You’re a good person, too. You just have… a lot of stuff to deal with at once.”

 _A nice way of saying “you’re just a little messed up in the head”_ , the voice that sounds like Minki echoes again in Minhyun’s mind. Minhyun can’t really argue against that, so he lets out a dry chuckle at Daniel’s quip and leaves it at that.

They stay silent for a while, taking in each other’s presence, their closeness more of comforting than awkward. Daniel smells nice, Minhyun thinks, and he has a nice personality to boot, always in high spirits and cheering up everyone else around him. It’s no wonder Jihoon and Woojin almost like Daniel more than they like Minhyun (he adds the _almost_ out of courtesy; deep down he knows they probably like Daniel better, and he accepts that. He, too, likes Daniel better).

The constant buzzing of Minhyun’s phone eventually kills whatever mood the two of them were in; after it buzzes consecutively about twelve times, Minhyun irritably takes it off his pocket, ignoring every notification to open up Jihoon’s messages (the only ones he felt it was his duty to immediately get back to).

 

**thing #1: (7:48 p.m)**

woozi hyung found our phones for us u can’t ground us forever HA

hyung are you getting laid

remember to wrap that willy

whichever willy

(remember to tell us later woojin n i got a bet going on)

**thing #1: (8:23 p.m)**

no reply after 20 minutes? someone’s getting LUCKY

we’re taking over ur bed then

we’re dying here

**thing #1: (9:44 p.m)**

hyung wtf is this about you already having a boyfriend

explain

 

“Wow, news sure spread fast in your world”, Daniel laughs onto Minhyun’s shoulder; there wasn’t much Minhyun could do to conceal his phone, and he figured Jihoon would send him tamer messages. He was wrong, of course.

“I wonder what they even told them”, Minhyun sighs. “They’re good at embellishing stories, too—who knows, I might turn up _married_ tomorrow.”

Daniel laughs at that. “Well, you’re not, right? I already feel a little wrong that we went out—”

“You were a dog for three quarters of our date”, Minhyun reasons.

“I _know_. Still. The intent was there, you know.”

Minhyun hums, then nods, quickly rereading Jihoon’s messages before blocking his screen to spare both him and Daniel from reading about the gross bets their students had. “I know, I feel weird about it too. “Seongwoo is—was a very important part of my life. I think I’ve hurt him enough if what Youngmin and Donghyun said is true.”

“Well”, Daniel hums, pulling away from Minhyun to stretch his limbs on his side of the couch. “There’s only way to know.”

Minhyun nods. “I know. I’ll talk to him.” He stretches as well, preparing himself to get up and out of Daniel’s house – and possibly life, even if only for a while. “I should be going now. The boys are probably drooling all over my bed right now.”

“Wait”, Daniel calls for him as he gets up, struggling to get up as well (that adorable sleepiness that had permeated their entire trip to Seoul, two months ago, still never fails to endear Minhyun). “Can I have a good night kiss?”

The wizard freezes. He had figured it would happen at some point in the date, and he finds that it’s impossible to really say _no_ _that would be wrong_ to Daniel’s puppy-like face, with that adorable toothy smile and eyes that turned into crescents whenever he laughed.

Daniel seems to notice his discomfort, but Minhyun shushes him before he can say anything. “Of—of course, Daniel. I think I owe you this much after this bummer of a date.”

He leans closer to the younger man, a little taken aback when Daniel’s inquiring face turns into a frown and he pulls away; Daniel’s fingers reach for his chin as he puckers up his lips, expecting a peck, only to have his face turned to the side by Daniel’s hand.

Daniel’s lips never find his; instead, he plants them delicately on Minhyun’s cheek, leaving a tingly sensation on the elder’s skin.

“You owe nothing to anyone, hyung”, Daniel whispers to him, not unkindly. “I would never force you into this kind of situation.”

He pulls away and quietly leads Minhyun to the front door by his hand.

**xxx**

By the time Minhyun comes home, he only finds his sister and Woozi awake; in his room, Jihoon and Woojin lay sprawled on his bed, amid a mess of textbooks and frantic notes. Minhyun cleans up the mess as best as he can without disturbing the boys (out of courtesy, but also afraid that waking them up might mean having more explanations to make; it had been a long day, he deserved that break), then picks his pajamas and moves to the guest room.

His phone had stopped buzzing an hour ago, but he knew he wouldn’t have any peace the next day without having to throw away his phone and start life anew in, say, _Daegu_ , if he didn’t get back to his friends that night.

He reads the messages from most recent to oldest, groaning at how many gossip aunties he had for friends back in Seoul and Jeju.

 

**choi satan: (7:52 p.m)**

so

you had no idea you had a hot bf huh

lmao why are we even surprised

dongho said you’re a loser

jonghyun said some shit abt reaching out to him if you need someone to talk

but we KNOW you’re gonna come crying to ME

about how RIGHT i was

but you refused to listen

**choi satan: (8:33 p.m)**

can’t hide forever!!!!!!!!!!!

**choi satan: (9:38 p.m)**

kids told me you’re on a date with doggo boy ???

you WENT OUT

with kang daniel

you filthy cheater

anyways i’m telling them everything as we text

**choi satan: (10:48 p.m)**

so when are you gonna call me crying i’m getting bored here

 

Minhyun leaves Minki on read.

**aron hyung: (8:42 p.m)**

are you okay minhyunie??

minki just told me about you and seongwoo

it’s actually kinda funny how you had no idea

honestly he was about ready to propose when you ran off

but of course you’d never let me talk about him

you should have listened

hyung knows better !!!!!!!!!!

 

**kim jonghyun: (09:22 p.m)**

minhyunie please don’t be mad at minki i’m scolding him right now

are you okay? it seems a little too much to take in, right?

i mean

it’s kinda funny how everything just flew right over your head

you know

but seongwoo was at fault too

i kept telling him to call things as they were

we had long talks about it

hahahaha you two are such dorks

sorry!!! anyway you know i’m here for you right <3

it’s just that… it’s a little funny, is all

 

**baekho ya: (9:53 p.m)**

haha dork

 

**hyunbinnie: (10:22 p.m)**

hyung are you really going out with two guys at the same time???

can I ask you out then??

the more the merrier!!!

 

**kenta-kun: (10:26 p.m)**

i just wanted to let you know that i don’t believe the rumors about you at all minhyunie!

you’d never do that to seongwoo right haha

love you!

 

**jiyoung noona: (10:43 p.m)**

hwang minhyun did you really curse a man and cheat on seongwoo-ya?

 

Minhyun leaves all his friends on read.

Curiously enough, the only one that doesn’t message him at all is Seongwoo and he has to swallow back the pang of disappointment at that realization. If Seongwoo knew about his date with Daniel, he probably wouldn’t want anything to do with Minhyun.

 _If_ Seongwoo really considered what they had—whatever it was that hey had— _dating_.

By now, he just _knows_ he’ll probably spend the next two weeks rethinking every single thing they did together, from having breakfast to going on _roommates-only_ movie dates that never really counted as dates despite Seongwoo insisting on treating him for popcorn and drinks most of the times, from studying together to picking nice places to eat dinner together and share desserts so they could try more things on the sweets menu because Seongwoo was always so mindful of Minhyun’s sweet tooth, from—

Shit.

They _were_ dating.

Instead of allowing himself time to wallow in that realization, Minhyun opens Seongwoo’s chat window and types out as fast as he can, before he can regret anything.

**hwang gallyang: (00:32 a.m)**

we need to talk

 

Seongwoo’s response comes so fast Minhyun starts to feel nauseous.

 

**ongcheongie: (00:32 a.m)**

took you long enough

**Author's Note:**

> "andie why do you end things on cliffhangers" i dont know [sue me](https://twitter.com/orionza_e)


End file.
